5 appetizer recipes with cucumbers

Cucumbers are an incredibly versatile ingredient. With a refreshing and crisp flavor, cucumber-based dishes are an elegant start to a dinner party at home. If you’re hosting a sophisticated evening for family and friends and need a selection of tasty appetizers to kick off the festivities, then have a read of our pick of the top cucumber appetizer recipes below. Quick and simple to prepare, these easy cucumber appetizers will look more complex than they are to make, and will be sure to impress your guests. 

Cucumber and mint gazpacho

Cucumber is an inherently refreshing fruit, being largely composed of water, and when paired with ingredients like mint it creates the most enticing appetizer. Try making a fresh alternative to traditional gazpacho, with this cucumber and mint gazpacho. This tops our list of appetizers with cucumbers for the summer months and takes as little as 20 minutes to prepare. You can even whip this recipe up ahead of time, and place the pots into the fridge ready to serve to your guests when seated for the evening meal. All you need is cucumber, mint leaves, crème fraîche, ice, milk, lemon juice, and horseradish. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend to your desired consistency, then season with salt and black pepper. You can then transfer the gazpacho into small glass pots, and garnish with a fresh mint leaf for a refined start to the meal. 

Cucumber and dill is a classic flavor combination. The bright, tangy flavor of dill is a welcome pairing with the refreshing, crisp taste of cucumber, and you’ll find these two together in many dishes in cuisines across the world. In our opinion, a cucumber and dill salad is one of the best cucumber appetizers, and certainly sets an elevated tone for your meal. Again, this appetizer can be prepped before your guests arrive and will actually benefit from time left to marinate together in the fridge. Combine sliced cucumber rounds with thinly sliced red onions, freshly chopped dill, white wine vinegar, granulated sugar, and salt in a bowl and leave to combine and blend together in the fridge for a couple of hours. Simply remove and plate up either in small individual bowls, or a large bowl for guests to help themselves. There are actually many varieties of cucumbers, so take care to purchase the right variety for this salad. English cucumbers tend to work best in this fresh and vibrant dish. 

Cucumbers provide the perfect small base for sophisticated canapés. Simply chop cucumbers into thin or thick rounds, and top with the ingredients of your choice. For a colorful vegetarian canapé, top your cucumber rounds with a tidy dollop of cream cheese and pomegranate seeds. Herbed shrimp and smoked salmon also pair beautifully with cucumber. Alternatively you can slice the cucumber thinly and use a cocktail stick to create a cucumber ribbon or small boat-shaped canapé to hold ingredients like crab or salmon mousse. Some chefs will actually even hollow out deep rounds of cucumber to fill with the mousse and then leave the shrimp tail dangling out of the top, for a different way to present a cucumber and shrimp canapé. 

Tzatziki with pita bread

Tzatziki of course goes hand in hand with cucumber, and if you’re looking for a sharing appetizer to get your guests digging in whilst socializing, tzatziki with pita bread is a brilliant option. It’s far easier to make homemade tzatziki than you’d think and takes only 20 minutes. A classic dip that has its home in Greek cuisine, when served alongside the warming crunch of pita bread this is a welcome appetizing start to any meal, and can be elevated depending on your presentation of the dish. Try toasting your pita bread and cutting into neat triangles, before serving on a slate or wooden board for a tidy presentation. Garnish your tzatziki with a handful of dill and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to really make the flavors pop. 

Taking inspiration from earlier cucumber canapés, cucumber rounds with salmon are a classic cucumber appetizer, and can be curated in a variety of different ways to present lots of flavor profiles to your guests. Firstly, the classic way to serve cucumber rounds with salmon is atop a dollop of cream cheese, and with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top. This canapé has everything, from the silky salmon to the crispy cucumber to the creamy cheese to the zesty lemon, it’s a powerhouse of an appetizer that’s small but mighty. For the pickle fans among us, cucumber with salmon pairs perfectly with pickled onions, bringing a new flavor dimension to this canapé. Other ingredients you can experiment with introducing to this canapé include nigella seeds, gherkins, and capers.